Okay yes, Cole wasn’t happy that Luke was the heir apparent, especially since he was two years older than Luke, but the cousins had worked that out. Mostly.

Now, though, none of them knew where they stood. All because Jamison Barrett had gotten a bug up his—

“I’m not talking about an argument, Luke,” Jamison said, clearly irritated. “I’m talking about what I see every time I walk out of this office. Hell, Luke, if you weren’t glued to your phone like the rest of humanity, you’d see it, too.”

As irritated as his grandfather, Luke bit back his temper. He’d heard this argument over and over during the last couple of months. “Not this again.”

“Yes, this. This is about the kids, Luke. As attached to their phones and screens and tablets and games as you are to your email.” Jamison threw both hands high. “Used to be, children were running amok outside with their friends, getting into trouble, climbing trees, swimming.” He glared at Luke. “Hell, you and Cole were in constant motion when you were kids. Making you stay inside and read was looked at like torture!”

All true, he thought, but he only said, “Times change.”

Jamison scowled. “Not always for the better. Kids today, all their friends are online, and they wear headsets so they can talk to each other without actually having to see each other. Instead of getting outside, they build ‘virtual’ tree houses. They have carefully written adventures via game boxes.”

“Hell, most kids probably don’t even know how to ride a bike anymore.”

Luke shook his head. “Bikes aren’t going to teach them how to navigate what’s becoming a completely digital world.”

“Right. A digital world.” Jamison nodded sharply. “Who’s going to fix your cars, or air conditioners, or the damn toilet when it breaks? You going to pee digitally, too? It’s going to get mighty hot in your house if you’re only using virtual air-conditioning.”

“This is ridiculous,” Luke muttered, amazed that he had allowed himself to get sucked into Jamison’s fixation. He had to wonder where his visionary grandfather had gone. Did this happen to all old people? Did they all start slipping into a hole and then pulling the hole in after them?

“Pop, you’re making the same kind of complaint every generation makes about the newer one. You’ve never been the kind of man to look backward. You’ve always been more interested in the future than the past. This isn’t like you.”